Formula One: Verstappen wins but Alonso steals the show

Fernando Alonso delighted to celebrate with race winner Max Verstappen and runner-up Checo Perez on the podium. Photo / Supplied

Following practice and qualifying for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, it looked like the regulation changes introduced last year by the FIA might produce a more even playing field amongst the 10 teams in this year’s championship.

But World Champion Max Verstappen winning the race for the first time, with his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez second, albeit some 11 seconds behind, demonstrated that the dominance Verstappen enjoyed last year when he won 15 out of 22 races, looks set to continue this year.

But the star of the Bahrain show, which ended with a fireworks display, was Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso, who proved, despite being at 41 the oldest driver on the grid by four years, that given the right car, he can still deliver, and deliver he did, passing seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, and his friend and compatriot, Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz, on the way to his 99th podium finish. He had a bit of luck at the beginning of the race, surviving without any damage from a hit from behind at the second corner by his teammate Lance Stroll.

The team didn’t tell him who had hit him, but Alonso thought it was George Russell. He also lucked in later when Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc retired from third place with engine failure. But there was no denying the two-time world champion, who seems to have got things right for a change when it comes to making decisions to change teams, is equal to the best in a competitive car.

When he announced before the end of last season that he would leave the Alpine team, the fourth-placed team in the championship, to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin, a team that was only 7th, the decision raised more than just a few eyebrows.

After all, he had left the Ferrari team at the end of 2014, to join McLaren, with whom five seasons would end with no podium finishes. Disgruntled, he seemingly retired from F1 but made a return in 2021 with the Alpine team, which was the renamed Renault team with whom he won his world titles in 2005 and 2006.

Although he didn’t have great success with Alpine, he did help his then-teammate Esteban Ocon win the Hungarian GP in 2021, by holding Hamilton up for 10 laps, and later had a third-place finish in the Qatar GP. But Alpine wouldn’t give Alonso the two-year contract extension he wanted, and his friend Lawrence Stroll, the majority shareholder in the Aston Martin team, did, including the promise of a team determined to get to the top,

After three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain, that dream looked more viable as Alonso’s simulated race run suggested the car might even challenge Ferrari and Mercedes in the first race, although Alonso for one, downplayed the likelihood of that happening.

Alonso’s overtake on Lewis Hamilton at Turn 10 underlined the pace and traction of the Aston Martin. Photo / Supplied

After topping the timesheets in Practice 2 and Practice 3, the Sky Sports commentators, including 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg, began to think the likelihood of a fourth team upsetting the usual top three of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes was a real possibility. When Verstappen took his 21st pole position, with Perez starting alongside, and the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz next, while Alonso qualified 5th, it seemed the dream was coming true.

At the race start, Verstappen took off from the pole and would never be headed, to record his 36th F1 victory, unchallenged for the lead at any stage, as Perez was overtaken at the start by Leclerc. It would take him more than half the race to get that place back, by which stage Max was gone. With the first three of Verstappen, Perez and Leclerc out front, the real battle was between the remaining Ferrari of Sainz, the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and George Russell, and the Aston Martin’s of Alonso and Stroll.

The latter was courageously driving despite having surgery two weeks ago after breaking his left wrist, and a toe on his right foot in a biking accident. He had to be helped in and out of his car, yet would eventually finish 6th in the race, holding out Russell.

With Verstappen cruising to victory, and Perez holding second comfortably, the race situation changed when Leclerc’s car ground to a halt from third place with an engine failure with 17 laps to go. Alonso, having overtaken Hamilton with the overtake of the race into turn 10, realised a podium finish was on if he passed Sainz, which he did two laps later and then proclaimed on the team car radio it was “a lovely car to drive”, as he pulled away from Sainz and Hamilton, and eventually crossed the finish line in third place, albeit 38 seconds adrift of Verstappen.

For a driver whose F1 career began 22 years ago in Melbourne in 2001 driving a Minardi, the slowest car on the grid at the time, a podium in his first race for his new team is redemption for the mutual faith between Alonso and Lawrence Stroll. It also confirms that as the second oldest to be on an F1 podium, the oldest being Michael Schumacher, who was 43 when he had a podium for Mercedes at Valencia in 2012, he still belongs in F1 and his dream of a third championship, next year at least, may now be realistic.

Alonso was interviewed in parce ferme by Nico Rosberg, who suggested it was an awesome start to the season.

“Yeah. Thank you. First of all, I think congrats to Lance, my teammate, you know, he had the surgery 12 days ago and now he’s fighting right with everybody,” was Alonso’s classy and unselfish reply. “So yeah, amazing for the team. It was a great weekend, and, yeah, finishing on the podium in the first race of the year, this is just amazing, you know, what Aston Martin did over the winter to have the second-best car in race one, this is just unreal.”

Asked how it felt to pass Sainz and Hamilton, the answer was classic Alonso, who never seems to stop analyzing his races.

“Yeah, obviously, I would love to start in front of them and then use the pace. But yeah, we had not the best start today and we had to pass on track. So yeah, it felt like more exciting, more adrenaline for sure. So, people enjoyed it. We did enjoy as well. So, let’s go into Jeddah.”

Rosberg later remarked: “Fernando drives as if he were 25 years old again. The speed he showed in the race and then the overtaking manoeuvre with Lewis. Insane. You don’t really overtake at this point. [Turn10] Fernando was on the limit. It was brilliant.”

That overtake is something Alonso clearly relished.

“It was great, a lot of respect between us,” he told Sky Sports. “It’s never the same when you fight against Lewis, one of the legends of our sport, and you know he can do something unexpected and use his talent.”

“He got me in Turn Four, I was in front of him, but he managed to pass me there. That was a little bit of a surprise, and I didn’t like it so I tried in another place and it worked, and I had more pace so I could pull away.”

For Verstappen, it was the perfect start to the new season after suffering a DNF in this race last year, and his victory was his first in Bahrain after nine starts.

“This is exactly what we were dreaming of and what we wanted to achieve, so yeah, great day for the whole team,” the defending champion said. “It has been a great start for us, for the whole team, so this is not something we are used to. We are very happy at the moment, but we always keep working.”

This was the first time Red Bull had finished 1-2 in the opening race and somewhat ominously for the rest, the first time Verstappen has won the opening race. The last Red Bull driver to win in Bahrain was Vettel in 2013.

Perez acknowledged losing a place to Leclerc at the start meant “finishing second was the maximum I could do today. It’s a long season, I think I’m getting closer every single season”.

Sainz, who finished 4h, could only lament the tyre degradation on his Ferrari compared to Red Bull and Aston Martin.

“I wish that as soon as we go to other tracks where we cook less the rear tyres, we can hold on better,” Sainz said. “It’s clear their car has something, both Red Bull and Aston, where they degrade a lot less.”

Leclerc was asked if he felt confident on the track before his retirement.

“I mean, as confident as I can be being a second off the pace, which is not really confident, to be honest,” he replied.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described it as “the worst day ever” which won’t lift the confidence of Hamilton, who finished fifth.

“The Ferraris were just quicker than us today, we were the fourth-fastest team,” he said. “It was close for a second [with Sainz] and then we just couldn’t hold on to him, he just kept pulling away, so did the best I could.”

“We’re miles off, there was a Ferrari that could have been ahead of him [Alonso] so we would have really been sixth, a podium was nowhere near.”

The pace of the Red Bulls was expected, but the pace of the Aston Martins is obviously the talk of the town. But Alonso, who took 53 per cent of the votes as driver of the race, is adamant the result was unexpected.

“We didn’t expect to be that competitive,” he insisted. “I think the aim in 2023 was to get in the mix with the midfield, maybe leading that midfield and get close to the top three teams eventually.”

“A big congratulations to everyone. Let’s enjoy this moment and build from here hopefully a good 2023 campaign and get closer and closer to the top guys.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner paid Aston Martin a back-handed compliment.

“I think it demonstrates to all the teams that it’s possible,” he said. “So, they’ve obviously done a good job over the winter. They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery, and its good to see the old car doing well,” he added, in reference to the AMR23 following a similar concept to the victorious RB 18 of 2022.

Sources: F1.com, Sky Sports F1,Aston Martin Racing